Configuration failed because libcurl was not found

libcurl4-openssl-dev is not a R package, but rather a linux library.

In a console type:

sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev

Note: you need sudo powers.

I got this error on Ubuntu Server 18.04, despite already having the libcurl4-openssl-dev apt package installed. I had to look up where the package installs libcurl.pc to figure out the command to use:

wget <curl-package-address>
R CMD INSTALL --configure-vars='LIB_DIR=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/pkgconfig' <curl-file.gz>

(Check the messages above the "ANTICONF ERROR" for the right file to download and install. For the questioner it was https://cran.rstudio.com/src/contrib/curl_2.3.tar.gz; mine was https://cloud.r-project.org/src/contrib/curl_4.3.tar.gz.)

The Linux release is: CentOS Linux release 7.3.1611 (Core)

In my case, I was trying to install R package: devtools

------------------------- ANTICONF ERROR ---------------------------
Configuration failed because libcurl was not found. Try installing:
 * deb: libcurl4-openssl-dev (Debian, Ubuntu, etc)
 * rpm: libcurl-devel (Fedora, CentOS, RHEL)
 * csw: libcurl_dev (Solaris)
If libcurl is already installed, check that 'pkg-config' is in your
PATH and PKG_CONFIG_PATH contains a libcurl.pc file. If pkg-config
is unavailable you can set INCLUDE_DIR and LIB_DIR manually via:
R CMD INSTALL --configure-vars='INCLUDE_DIR=... LIB_DIR=...'

I checked $PATH, 'pkg-config' was in the PATH. But there is no libcurl.pc file in PKG_CONFIG_PATH (/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/).

Here is how I solved the problem.

su
wget https://github.com/curl/curl/releases/download/curl-7_55_0/curl-7.55.0.tar.gz
./configure
make 
make install

After this, I saw libcurl.pc file in PKG_CONFIG_PATH (/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/).

Just ran into this issue when using GitHub actions to run a R script on a cron schedule.

Popping sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev into system() within the R file works. Much easier then setting up the bash command on the runner separately.

system("sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev")